INTANGIBLE ROSES

I love keeping track of oddities that pique my attention when I’m travelling, especially if there is wisdom or a note of the literary staring back at me. Intangible roses, my sister-in-law Deborah might call them, little blips of blessing-flavored occurrence that make me feel like I’m part of something much bigger. The trip to and from Mom and Dad’s this time was no different than it ever is with regards to intangible roses and the dear and interesting people we ran across. Most curious was the number of women in forlorn spots whose stories featured being carted to those bare places by men who married then abandoned them. Most memorable beyond that were the two oldsters playing cribbage at an old gas station. No gas, but there was a bathroom, and you could get a bag of candy or mixed nuts. The 90-something had taught the 70-something to play. Now the 90-something was mad because he was losing every game. Neither of them looked up until I spoke first. The place was untouched, a 1950s relic. Except for the I-pad near the 70-something’s right elbow.

Oddities and Wisdom/December 2015

Town name—Rarity, Tennessee

Town name—Harmon Den, North Carolina

Recurring name—Johnson, both town and road

Property for sale; property condemned—so many ways to challenge the reality of that. Who can own the ground?

Platitudes

be on the lookout for empty platitudes

be ready to forgive them

Much of the U.S. is technically a food desert. We saw more food service trucks than we did oil tankers.

from the CD “Samba” insert; collection of Afro-Cuban music purchased in Boone, North Carolina

“Any activation of the hips-butt-pelvis relates to the source of all life, the womb. This music is definitely a respectful prayer in honor of the sweet, the feminine, the great mother—the sensuous life-giving aspects of ourselves and our lives—and to the Earth, the mother of us all. To shake your rump is to be environmentally aware.”

Worrisome—plastic clouds over W. Wyoming, both ends of the trip. Horrible poisonous clouds that give an instant headache and sore throat. Company is called Tronox, a chemical monstrosity with filth-producing conglomerates from Wyoming to Australia. Enormous operations built on blanched earth where no people live. No one to complain way out there, I reckon.